Automating public business processes: Towards an AI-augmented government

Rapid technology advancements have culminated in the revitalisation of the public sector. The originally conceptualised e-government is now transforming into Government 4.0, which is known as AI-augmented government or logarithmic government. Many countries, even in the developing world contexts, have jumped on the bandwagon of automating public services and introducing some level of intelligence. This chapter explores some fundamental principles surrounding AI-augmented e-government and proposes a framework that can be used as a reference high-level technology stack for achieving automation and intelligence in the realm of Government 4.0. The research uses concurrent mixed methods to investigate the different aspects of the research from two vantage points. This research employed a longitudinal paradigm with two parts of the study: The first part is an empirical part that collected qualitative data from three towns in Zambia to understand the level of development of e-government from both the individual and local government levels. The second one uses descriptive bibliometrics to understand the development trajectory of Government 4.0. This research has shown that traditional e-government is not much desired in Zambia as anticipated benefits are limited. However, the more progressive AI-enabled augmented e-government model is desired by both businesses and individuals. Therefore, this chapter presents both the results of the empirical study and explores the AI-enabled e-government, especially from the point of view of utilising robotic process automation as a precursor to advancing a more progressive e-government model with increased intelligence and automation. It is expected that this chapter will be used as a blueprint for designing AI-enabled e-government paradigms.